Here is today’s sustainable IT services news, research and analysis -- written for technology partners, green IT service providers, CIOs, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) and climate accounting professionals.
A. Sustainable Technology, Talent, Partnerships and Green IT Alliances
1. Microsoft Earnings - AI Cloud Trends: Microsoft's fiscal Q4 results beat Wall Street's expectations, but Azure cloud revenue growth was slightly weaker than expected. Total cloud-related revenue was $36.8 billion for the period, below Microsoft's previous $36.84 billion estimate, SeekingAlpha reported. Azure growth included 8 points from AI services -- where "demand remained higher than our available capacity," Microsoft said.
2. AI Data Centers: Soluna Holdings will leverage Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Nvidia technologies for green data center and AI initiatives. The effort includes HPE’s direct liquid-cooled infrastructure based on NVIDIA H100 SXM GPUs. Nearly 100% renewable energy will power the data centers, Soluna added.
3. Smart Buildings - CEO Transition: Johnson Controls CEO George Oliver is set to retire and former Xylem CEO Patrick Decker will join the company's board. The updates come after activist investor Elliott Investment pushed for changes at the smart building solutions provider.
4. Smart Buildings - Financial Results: Smart building and sustainability specialist Schneider Electric posted lower net profit but higher revenue for the first half of 2024 and upgraded its guidance, MorningStart reported.
5. Partnership - Recycling: Greentec and Makhos Solutions are partnering to provide refurbished electronics to Indigenous-run businesses and schools across Ontario, Canada. Greentec is an IT asset disposal (ITAD) company. Makhos is an Indigenous-owned staffing, training, consulting and construction services company.
6. Partnership - AI Software and Energy Transition: Tree Energy Solutions (TES) will leverage Palantir's AI software as part of a mission to "drive the green energy transition and accelerate global decarbonization." TES will leverage Palantir's software for supply chain management, simulation and scenario modeling for investment optimization, site selection, asset management, carbon emissions tracking, and modeling the energy transformation pipeline. We don't know specifics in terms of a rollout timeline.
7. Partnership - Maritime Services: PPG and RightShip are partnering to "foster the development and adoption of innovative solutions to promote a more sustainable future in the maritime industry," the companies said.
8. Energy Storage Solutions: Excelsior Energy Capital will deploy Fluence’s Gridstack Pro product line in the United States starting in 2025. The effort involves energy storage solutions, services, and optimization software for projects spanning 2.2 GWh of energy.
9. AI Concerns: Perplexity AI debuted a revenue-sharing model for publishers after more than a month of plagiarism accusations, CNBC reported.
10. AI Investigation: The UK's antitrust agency is taking a look at Google's partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, SeekingAlpha reported.
11. Solar Farms: Amazon is leveraging Maximo -- an AI-powered robot developed by energy company AES -- to accelerate solar farm installation times.
B. Sustainability M&A, Investments, Funding and Green IT Business Launches
1. Startups Incubator: Keep an eye on Prosemino. The organization's mission is to "protect the environment and lower the cost of energy by creating, building and supporting startups that are developing solutions to net-zero problems."
2. Funding - Fusion Startup: Type One Energy has raised $53.5 million in new funding. Key investors include Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Foxglove Ventures and GD1.
3. Private Equity: ArcLight Capital Partners, a major private equity buyer of power assets, launched a new unit with initial capital of $500 million to acquire and upgrade wind and solar projects that will help meet surging electricity demand from data centers, Bloomberg reported.
4. M&A - Energy Management Services: I Squared Capital has acquired Priority Power Management, a provider of energy management and infrastructure solutions. Priority Power, founded in 2001, provides energy procurement, risk management, interconnection services and renewable energy solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
5. M&A - Nuclear Waste Management: Perma-Fix Environmental Services has acquired the Environmental Waste Operations Center (EWOC) near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
6. Complete M&A List: Here's our database of all M&A deals involving green IT and renewable energy buyers, sellers and investors.
C. Regional and Global Sustainability Policies and News
1. United States - Renewable Energy and Cybersecurity: The fast-growing renewable energy market could attract a growing number of cyberattacks, The FBI recently warned.
2. United States - E-Waste and Device Policies: In response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) request for comment on their new carrier unlocking rule, refurbishers, repairers and recyclers called on the agency to take on a different type of lock, PIRG reported: Software locks that prevent reuse and drive electronic waste.
3. Germany - CSRD: The German Federal Government has adopted the governmental draft of the Act implementing the EU Directive on Sustainability Reporting (Directive (EU) 2022/2464 – CSRD) into German law (the Government Draft), Latham & Watkins noted. The adoption of the Government Draft constitutes the next significant step in the legislative process after the German Ministry of Finance published the first draft implementing law on 22 March 2024 (the Ministerial Draft).
D. Sustainability and Green Technology Conference Calendar
- XeroCon Nashville 2024Â (August 14-15, Nashville, Tennessee)
- World ESG Summit Dubai (August 20-21, Dubai, UAE)
- Tennessee Sustainability Conference 2024Â (Gatlinburg, Tennessee, August 20-23)
- VMware Explore 2024Â (August 26-29, Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Complete Calendar of Sustainability Conferences
E. Previous Updates & Future News
- Did You Miss Yesterday's Daily Update?: Here is our previous sustainability, green IT and renewable energy news for technology partners.
- Future Updates: If you have news to share then please email me the details.
